A/N: Written for the House cup 2012 by alicia and anne from Slytherin.

Prompts used.

- features your House’s Champion (5 points)

- mentions at least 4 specific breeds of dragon (5 points)

- features a dragon (10 points)

- mentions the details of your Champion’s Wand, as provided by your Head of House (25 points)

- mentions 2 of the following types of magic: a transfiguration spell, a sleeping spell, the conjunctivitis curse, the summoning charm (accio) (15 points) ( I used the conjunctivitus curse and a sleeping spell)

The wind nipped at his face as he continued walking through the darkening forest, small crunches of twigs breaking and leaf’s crunching could be heard underneath his boots. His eyes searching around him looking for something he had been searching for, for a very long time now.

He was on his way to secure himself a Dragon to protect the school. Godric Gryffindor had told him that it was not needed; that they had enough spells put on the castle to keep outsiders at bay, why would they need a Dragon? But Salazar paid him no heed, when did Godric think he could tell anyone what to do? It was Godric’s dismissal at his idea that made Salazar dead set on having one around, anything to annoy Godric.

He ventured forwards as he kept his eyes peeled for the Hungarian Horntail, the most ferocious of all of the beasts he had previously encountered, such as the Romanian Longhorn, the Chinese Fireball, the Peruvian Vipertooth and the Ukrainian Ironbelly. The last two had been extremely dangerous for him to approach, not easily sought out due to their bad tempers and in the case of the Peruvian Vipertooth the amount of venom they could produce.

His skin had been grazed by this Dragon when he had thrown a conjunctivitis curse at it and his skin was still burning, that had been months ago and Helga Hufflepuff had since tried to soothe the wound with various charms from her own wand, that she had taught to Salazar to use in the future, so far nothing seemed to be working.

The Ukrainian Ironbelly was deemed too big by Salazar to be the guardian of the castle, as he was worried that the castle could collapse under the weight of the Dragon should it go on a rampage, there was only so much that magic could do to protect it. He almost didn’t escape from this Dragon either when it had chased him but with his quick thinking and a sleeping spell that was inches from missing the Dragon, he had managed to get away unharmed.

With the Hungarian Horntail he wasn’t so sure that this was a good idea. He had been lucky before not to be killed by the other Dragon’s he had faced, the Romanian Longhorn had almost cornered him, but he had come too far to be deterred now, for many days and nights he had travelled by foot to the secluded woods he was currently in. It the last known whereabouts of the Dragon as told to him by an unkempt man at an Inn not far from where he was, after a few mugs of mead had gone to the man’s head.

Salazar’s eyes scanned the wooded area he was in, searching for the Dragon, knowing that he would more than likely hear it before he saw it. He was still inching carefully towards the clearing in front of him; he didn’t want to be caught out, again.

He heard the flames before he felt them, he quickly dived out of the way, tucking his body up as much as he could as he rolled. He quickly stood and looked up to see that the Dragon was standing at a stone wall in the clearing, which was stone most of the way around, except for the wooded area Salazar had just exited. The Dragon was standing at its full height and was attempting to make itself even bigger as it began stomping the floor, a low growl forming in its throat. Any lesser man would have been terrified at the sight of the beast, but Salazar wasn’t just a lesser man.

With a large smirk, he pushed himself up from the ground, pushing leaves and mud off of his face as he had his wand outstretched in front of him. His hand gripped his wand tightly, twelve and a half inches, yew with a Dragon Heartstring for a core. He remembered the day he had it forged for him, the man had told him that it would be a powerful wand, good for duelling and defensive spells. He didn’t think that the maker of his wand knew just how well it was when duelling against Dragon’s.

“There you are,” Salazar whispered, as he made sure he was a safe enough distance away from the Dragon’s talons, it was still stamping at the floor, the agitation showing on its face at being disturbed.

He had to admire just how beautiful a creature this Hungarian Horntail was, it was a dark colour with blood red making patterns across its scales. The beast roared and Salazar dived out of the way again, cursing himself for letting himself get distracted, he needed to secure her so he could take her to the castle. Who would want to break into Hogwarts with a Dragon on the doorstep?

“Now we need to get you back home,” Salazar said to the Dragon, the Dragon growled again as it backed up. Salazar took a chance and began walking forwards slowly, trying to think if a conjunctivitis curse would work to take down this magnificent creature. He settled instead for a simple stunning curse, he needed to distract it enough so that he could climb onto her so he could direct her to the castle, the other founders would help him tame the Dragon when he got there. They’d have no choice to, unless they wanted to end up as the Dragon’s lunch.

Salazar flicked his wand at the creature and sent his stunning spell; it hit the Dragon in the leg causing it to roar as its leg fell asleep. It collapsed slightly under its own weight and gave a roar, shooting a burst of flames, Salazar barely shielded himself with a spell, the heat coming through the spell and causing Salazar’s breath to hitch from the intensity of it.

He didn’t mean to annoy her this much and he felt slightly bad at it being this way, but he needed this particular Dragon. The Dragon having had enough of Salazar ducked slightly, Salazar with his eyes wide ran forwards as the Dragon’s head pointed skyward, he had seen everyone of the Dragon’s he had faced earlier do this right before they had flown away, and he wasn’t going to let this one get away when he had travelled for such a long time.

He dove quickly, grabbing hold of the middle of the Dragon’s tail, holding on tightly as the Dragon took flight, not seeming to notice Salazar holding on as it tried to get away from the danger.

It was only a matter of seconds before they were higher in the air then Salazar had ever been in his life. Sure broomsticks could only take you so far up but this was amazing. He climbed further up the Dragon with great difficulty and settled in a more secure place.

Salazar let out a loud laugh as he sat atop of the Dragon holding on for dear life; it was rumoured to be the fastest of all the Dragon’s he had encountered, and he had to admit that it was true. He waved his wand and secured himself to the Dragon with a spell, sitting happily on its back as the wind blew through his hair and he struggled to stop his eyes watering from the resistance as he tried to see the scene around him.

He gave a loud cheer as he thought of how Godric was not going to be happy when Salazar did in fact turn up with a Dragon he knew that he wouldn’t be happy in the slightest, the only thing Salazar didn’t know was how he was going to keep the Dragon contained on the grounds, or get it to head in the general direction of where the school was located.

He’d deal with that later, he thought to himself as he looked around at the breathtaking view still blinking wildly as his eyes tried to shield themselves from the wind; he was going to enjoy flying for a while.